Design objectives for most electrical connectors include: low cost; manufacturing ease; assembly well suited for automation; strength; strain relief; and environmental sealing. In recent years, the miniaturization of electrical equipment and components often has made the size of electrical connectors become an overriding design objective. However, it has been difficult to design an acceptably small electrical connector that achieves the other well known design objectives, such as environmental sealing, ease of assembly, strain relief and such. In many instances, one or more design objectives have been sacrificed in an effort to achieve the overriding objective of a small electrical connector. Thus, many available miniature electrical connectors do not provide adequate environmental sealing, provide poor protection for the fragile electric connections therein, provide ineffective strain relief, or are difficult to assemble because of the size and fragility of the components.
One effective small environmentally sealed electrical connector is shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 005,045 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,174 which was filed by the inventor herein and which is assigned to the assignee of the subject application. Application Ser. No. 005,045 shows mateable connector halves. Each electrical connector half includes a plurality of terminals frictionally retained in longitudinally aligned apertures extending through a one-piece molded elastomeric insert. The elastomeric insert shown in co-pending application Ser. No. 005,045 preferably is molded from a material having a high coefficient of friction to enable both a secure frictional retention of the terminals therein, and to enable the respective elastomeric inserts to be frictionally retained in outer shells. The frictional retention of the elastomeric inserts in the outer shells helps to achieve environmental sealing, and further simplifies and facilitates the assembly of each half of the electrical connector. The disclosure of co-pending application Ser. No. 005,045 is incorporated herein by reference.
Despite the many advantages of the electrical connector shown in co-pending Application Ser. No. 005,045, it is desired to provide an electrical connector that is even easier and less expensive to manufacture and assemble.
It is an object of the subject invention to provide an alternative means of assembling terminals into the connector assembly, the advantages of which become more apparent as size is decreased.
It is a further object of the subject invention to provide an electrical connector that provides simple, inexpensive environmental sealing.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide mateable electrical connector halves that are hermaphroditic to minimize inventory control problems and reduce manufacturing expenses, as well as to provide positive keying of the circuits.
Yet another object of the subject invention is to provide an electrical connector that provides exceptional environmental sealing and strain relief with a substantial minimum number of components.